Ross Chainey — Narendra Modi: These are the 3 greatest threats to civilization

Climate change, terrorism and the backlash against globalization are the three most significant challenges to civilization as we know it, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2018 in Davos, Switzerland.

These are all conditions either caused by or strongly influenced by neoliberalism, which entails neo-imperialism and neocolonialism, as well as "colonizing" the vast majority of the populations of the developed countries that heretofore had been more or less exempt. The results are environmental pillage, inequality of income and wealth to more an more wealth concentrating at the top, and the substitution of transnational corporatism for democracy. The reaction is becoming clear as the historical dialectical responds — social unrest, political divisiveness and increasing conflict.

Prime Minister Modi puts his finger on the problem and then offers neoliberal nostrums for addressing it.

World Economic Forum
Narendra Modi: These are the 3 greatest threats to civilization
Ross Chainey, Digital Media Specialist, World Economic Forum

Also

Branko Milanovic sums it up:

This return to the industrial relations and tax policies of the early 19th century is bizarrely spearheaded by people who speak the language of equality, respect, participation, and transparency. None of them is in favor of “Master and Servant Act” or forced labor. It just so happened that the language of equality has been harnessed in the pursuit of structurally most inegalitarian policies over the past fifty years, or more. And indeed, it is much more profitable to call journalists and tell them about the nebulous schemes whereby 90% of wealth will be, over an unknown number of years and under unknowable accounting practices, given away as charity than to pay suppliers and workers reasonable rates or stop selling information about the users of platforms. It is cheaper to place a sticker about the fair trade than to give up the use of zero-hour contracts.

They are loath to pay a living wage, but they will fund a philharmonic orchestra. They will ban unions, but they will organize a workshop on transparency in government.So in a year, they will be back in Davos and perhaps a new record in dollar wealth per square foot will be achieved, but the topics, in the conference halls and on the margins, will be again the same. And it will go on like this…until it does not.Global Inequality

Dutiful dirges of Davos
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

See also

The following post is wonkish not mathematically but conceptually. But Alexander Dugin puts his finger on it in distinguishing between the person and the individual. The person is the total human being with all the unique of a personality and social relations, embedded in a historical, geographical and cultural contest. The individual is the person stripped of every sort of different that distinguishes human beings from each other. The individual is reduced to homo economicus, a black box that operates on stimulus response to maximize self-interest. The individual can serve as an atomistic "representative agent," while the person cannot owing to personal uniqueness and systemic relationships.

The Fourth Political Theory
The Economic Personality
Alexander Dugin

Putin — US Provided Support to Terrorists in Russia's Chechnya

Upping the ante.

Sputnik International
Putin: US Provided Support to Terrorists in Russia's Chechnya

Moon of Alabama — Theresa May Says "Enough Is Enough" - We Agree - Remove Her From Office

Brits especially should read this. Good links. Pass it on.

Moon of Alabama
Theresa May Says "Enough Is Enough" - We Agree - Remove Her From Office

b

Moon of Alabama — France Prepares Pro-AlQaeda Intervention In Syria

Terrorists in France, bad. Terrorists in Syria, good.

Some people never learn apparently.

Moon of Alabama
France Prepares Pro-AlQaeda Intervention In Syria

b

See also

Read the comments, too.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
US MEDIA'S FAVORITE JIHADIST

Decameron

Robert Parry — The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable

Background that is important in light of Donald Trump's stance on Iran, as well as that of Lt. General Flynn, Trump's choice for National Security Advisor and appointment of General Mattis as Secretary of Defense.

One of Official Washington’s favorite “group thinks” is to insist that Iran is the “chief sponsor of terrorism,” but the reality is that Saudi Arabia is much guiltier and U.S. officials know it, says Robert Parry.…

Parry shows that it is impossible for anyone in the deep state or the military not to know that Saudi Arabia is the chief state sponsor of terrorism and not Iran. Iran is opposed by Israel and the Wahhabi-Salafi Sunni states, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Is Donald Trump either misinformed, or carrying water for Israel?  But if that is so, why would he be backing off replacing Assad in Syria, which IsraelI officials have stated as the number one goal?

Are the generals are also misinformed (which is highly unlikely), backing Israel also, or just uttering a shibboleth as a secret handshake to be admitted to the game.

Consortium News
The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable
Robert Parry

See also

Some of President-elect Trump’s national security appointees are part of Official Washington’s “we-hate-Iran” group think, raising concerns about another Mideast war, notes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

Trump and His Iran-Haters

Paul R. Pillar

The Moderate Syrian Opposition Are Terrorists from All over the World — Desislava Pateva Interviews Mohammed Ibrahim

Interview with a Syrian who also has Bulgarian citizenship and now lives in Bulgaria. Longish but revealing.

SouthFront

The Moderate Syrian Opposition Are Terrorists from All over the World

Interview conducted by Desislava Pateva with Mohammed Ibrahim, chairman of the Association of Syrians in Bulgaria; Originally appeared at A-specto, translated by Borislav exclusively for SouthFront

Vladimir Putin comments on provocation in Crimea - Minsk negotiations now pointless

Vladimir Putin: 

"This is very disturbing. Our security services have prevented penetration of sabotage-reconnaissance group of the Ukraine Ministry of Defense into Crimea. Of course, such actions mean that continuing talks in Normandy format is pointless, especially when it comes to the next meeting in China.

Because, apparently, the people who [violently] seized power in Kiev and continue to usurp it, don’t want negotiations. [snip] Now, instead of looking for ways to settle the conflict peacefully, they decided to try terrorism.In this regard, I can’t avoid mentioning that we view the recent assassination attempt targeting the head of the Lugansk People's Republic as an [act of terror], same as the current attempt to sneak saboteurs into the territory of Crimea.

Fort Russ

Vladimir Putin comments on provocation in Crimea - Minsk negotiations now pointless
Translated by Tatzhit

South Front — Putin explains Russian forces’ objectives in Syria

Russian military forces in Syria are destroying militants who have openly declared Russia to be their enemy and who do not conceal their plans to expand their activities onto territory of CIS countries, said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. This statement was posted on February 20 on Kremlin’s web site.

“Our armed forces ought to be in constant readiness to quickly and appropriately react to potential threats, counter any provocation and aggression,” Putin said during his speech marking the Fatherland Defender’s Day celebrations at the Kremlin.

Pretty much echoes G. W. Bush's, “We’re taking the fight to the terrorists abroad, so we don’t have to face them here at home.” The difference is that the threat is a lot more immediate to Russia than the US owing to geography and demographics.

South Front
Putin explains Russian forces’ objectives in Syria

Original published by lenta.ru; translation by J.Hawk

Rusvesna — "Cologne Rapes Are Putin's Handiwork" - Activist

Kind of funny in a macabre way.

Fort Russ
"Cologne Rapes Are Putin's Handiwork" - Activist
Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
Rusvesna

Andrew Korybko — Sexual Terrorism In The Heart Of Europe

By and large, it appears as though the “refugee” crisis is wildly succeeding in its ultimate US-scripted objective of destabilizing the EU from within. Washington has engineered and choreographed the forceful imposition of identity-driven divide-and-rule tactics right into the heart of Europe, all with the end goal of making the continent’s strongest actors overwhelmingly vulnerable to on-demand Color Revolution threats. It’s this Damocles’ Sword of a matrix of uncontrollable violence between the citizens and the state, locals and “refugees”, the far-left and the far-right, and “refugees” and the state, that is expected to scare Europe’s most important decision makers (Angela Merkel chief among them) into continuing their subservience to the US.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Sexual Terrorism In The Heart Of Europe
Andrew Korybko

See also

The news of Muslim sex attacks is being censored, whitewashed, and covered up. In Germany, the attacks were coordinated — that was a New Year’s jihad-terror attack.

Pamela Geller
MORE EUROPEAN CITIES report Muslim Sex Attacks on New Year’s Eve: ZURICH, HELSINKI UPDATE: Austria, too

Or is it that young Muslim males are sexual predators (in the same league with young black males as the assumption goes)?

American Thinker
Europe finally w
aking up to the reality of Islamic sexual predation?
Carol Brown

U.S. Remains Tight with Saudis In Spite of Support for Terrorism — Sharmini Peries interviews Toby C. Jones

But the German foreign ministry, much like the U.S. State Department or another, or the British government, David Cameron in the UK, for example, all see Saudi Arabia as an ally, as a partner in a series of, in a series of important or critical strategic interests. The first and most obvious of which is they claim, in spite of the evidence to the contrary, that Saudi Arabia is committed to anti-terrorism. But there are other things at work here, including oil, as well as Saudi Arabia's ability to generate massive amounts of wealth and then to redistribute that wealth into Western economies.

It's important to remember Tim Mitchell and Bob Vitalis and other scholars have written about this, that the easiest way for Western powers to get a hold of some of the oil wealth that gets generated in the Middle East is to sell very expensive weapons systems to those places. There's nothing that returns as much on oil revenue as buying Western weapons. You can't sell enough cars, you can't sell enough milk or eggs, or even nuclear technology or desalination technology. So keeping the pipeline open, an economic pipeline, between Saudi Arabia and the other oil producers and Western arms-producing countries, is critical for those places. They see these as engines of wealth and as sources of revenue for themselves.

So on balance, trying to criticize or taking a step to criticize Saudi Arabia on its human rights record, or even possibly in its role in funding terrorism, pales in comparison to these places who think that getting some money back from the region is more important…

So there you have it. Again, follow the munnie. The rest is "collateral damage."

So you've got a convergence of a lot of things here, some of which you've mentioned. That PR money flows through Congress, so Congressional representatives are unlikely and unwilling to criticize the Saudis, because it's materially beneficial for them not to do so. The White House is stuck in the middle between various forces in the U.S. policymaking establishment. It's really probably a weak partner when it comes to maintaining relationships like the one with Saudi. The Pentagon is entirely insulated. And it both benefits materially from the sale of weapons and strategically from having access to important military networks in the region.

So the forces against a reasonable American policy are deeply entrenched, and they're difficult to break through.

And democracy is only in the interest of the US when it results in a government that is friendly to the US and compliant with US interests.

I think what's most interesting, and most problematic, particularly now in the wake of not 9/11, but in the wake of the Arab uprisings, is that Saudi Arabia was viewed by American policymakers as a pillar in the region against the forces of rogue states like Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and even Syria under Assad in a previous iteration. That is to say that the Saudis were viewed as precisely the kind of stabilizing force that was necessary to strengthen other friendly regimes that just happened to be autocratic in the Middle East. Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, and others who were hardly democratic but were useful to the United States for precisely those reasons. Historically democratic open systems, from the perspective of American power, is problematic.

Saudi Arabia emerged from the 2011 uprisings as the last-standing strong regional autocratic power. And the United States sees them as important for precisely that reason, not in spite of it. So that means this. That it's Saudi Arabia's stable, autocratic presence, and its willingness to promote a reorientation towards the old autocratic order after the failed revolutions, that I think many American strategic policymakers and thinkers see as desirable. They prefer stability, in spite of Saudi Arabia's dalliances with terrorism, and the threat that ISIS may play in places like Syria. They see Saudi Arabia as more of a stabilizing force than it is a destabilizing one.

Now, we can debate whether that's true or not. But that's widely believed to be the case.

Real News Network
U.S. Remains Tight with Saudis In Spite of Support for Terrorism

Sharmini Peries interviews Toby C. Jones, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University

Joshua Holland — Here’s What a Man Who Studied Every Suicide Attack in the World Says About ISIS’ Motives

"What 95 percent of all suicide attacks have in common, since 1980, is not religion, but a specific strategic motivation to respond to a military intervention, often specifically a military occupation, of territory that the terrorists view as their homeland or prize greatly. From Lebanon and the West Bank in the 80s and 90s, to Iraq and Afghanistan, and up through the Paris suicide attacks we’ve just experienced in the last days, military intervention—and specifically when the military intervention is occupying territory—that’s what prompts suicide terrorism more than anything else."

AlterNet
Here’s What a Man Who Studied Every Suicide Attack in the World Says About ISIS’ Motives
Joshua Holland

Adam Withnall — Saudi Arabia declares all atheists are terrorists in new law to crack down on political dissidents

Article one of the new provisions defines terrorism as "calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based".…

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Saudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of their policies, but these recent laws and regulations turn almost any critical expression or independent association into crimes of terrorism….

"These regulations dash any hope that King Abdullah intends to open a space for peaceful dissent or independent groups," Mr Stork said.…

 Not a very liberal bunch, are they? What was that about "spreading freedom and democracy" again?

Oh, right, they have the oil.

Independent
Saudi Arabia declares all atheists are terrorists in new law to crack down on political dissidents
Adam Withnall
ht Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism

Bruce Hoffman — ISIS has studied the past successes of terrorism all too well

History lesson. 

Terrorism is traditional political-military tactic of the weaker party to conflict. It's inexpensive, readily available, simple to implement, and history shows that it works. It also harms a lot less people and causes less damage than conventional military operations for political ends.

Aeon
ISIS has studied the past successes of terrorism all too well
Bruce Hoffman, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies and a senior fellow at the US Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center

Charles P. Pierce — There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS

We must hold accountable our Middle Eastern "allies"—the states and bankers and political elites—who persist in funding mass murder….

It's not like this is any kind of secret. In 2010, thanks to WikiLeaks, we learned that the State Department, under the direction of then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, knew full well where the money for foreign terrorism came from. It came from countries and not from a faith. It came from sovereign states and not from an organized religion. It came from politicians and dictators, not from clerics, at least not directly. It was paid to maintain a political and social order, not to promulgate a religious revival or to launch a religious war. Religion was the fuel, the ammonium nitrate and the diesel fuel. Authoritarian oligarchy built the bomb. As long as people are dying in Paris, nobody important is dying in Doha or Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton. "More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them. The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.

It's time for this to stop. It's time to be pitiless against the bankers and against the people who invest in murder to assure their own survival in power. Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the west. Money trails should be followed, wherever they lead. People should go to jail, in every country in the world. It should be done state-to-state…. 

Esquire

There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS
Charles P. Pierce

Gordon M. Hahn — Europe’s New Terrorist Threat

The threat of terrorist attacks is rising across Europe. Observers rightly point to the rise of the Islamic State, the persistent threat from Al Qa`ida (AQ) and its affiliates and allies in Europe and neighboring Eurasia, and the recent explosion of the refugee flood Syria, Iraq, North Africa, again Eurasia but most notably Syria. However, another terrorism threat has raised its ugly head in Europe; one that has reached across the half-continent from its eastern edge to the far west in London—the Ukrainian neo-fascist terrorist threat.

The CIA defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.” It defines ‘international terrorism’ as “terrorism involving the territory or the citizens of more than one country.” (www.secbrief.org/2014/04/definition-of-terrorism/) The term ‘state terrorism’ has entered the field of terrorism studies, with its definition mush as the first one given above, with the difference that the terms ‘state’, ‘state organizations’ and/or ‘state agents’ replace the phrase ‘sub-national groups or clandestine agents.’

Numerous violent acts committed either by pro-Maidan revolutionary, mostly neo-fascist or ultra-nationalist, sub-national groups (i.e., non-state actors and groups) before and during the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich or by state actors, organs and agents after the installation of the new Maidan Ukrainian government or regime qualify as terrorism.…

Russian and Eurasian Politics
Europe’s New Terrorist Threat
Gordon M. Hahn | Analyst and Advisory Board Member of the Geostrategic Forecasting Corporation, Chicago, Illinois; a Senior Researcher, Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group, San Jose, California; and an Analyst/Consultant, Russia Other Points of View – Russia Media Watch

Maxfux — Reports: Chinese ships head to Syria

China deploys troops to help Russia in Syria

Remember the joint military exercises of Russia and China in the sea and on land? With landing on shore and fighting against terrorists?

And here is the answer to the question of why they trained together.

"An Arab news source [Al Masdar News] reports that a military contingent of the PRC is on the way to Latakia and will arrive in Syrian ports any day. Chinese transport with military cargo was spotted on Tuesday morning, passing through the Suez canal.

Information about the Chinese military experts heading to Tartus was confirmed by the commander of the Syrian army. The report concludes that Moscow will create in Syria an anti-terrorist coalition that will become the alternative version of the military alliance formed by the US for dropping supplies to ISIS. Military entrance of China into the struggle for Syria will be an important addition to today's statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry. At a press conference with "Russia Today" deputy foreign minister of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian stated that Iran will fight ISIS together with Russia. Notably Amir talked not just about an alliance, but a creation of a broad military coalition.…

The presence of the international coalition significantly changes the balance of power in favor of Moscow, untying Russian hands for direct military action in the Middle East."

It seems that Russia has finally returned to the Middle East.

Fort Russ
Reports: Chinese ships head to Syria

Maxfux
Translated by Kristina Rus

Scott Beauchamp — Murder by Other Means

...well before the 2003 Iraq invasion, American strategic minds were already cannily sizing up the mercenary market. Paul Bremer, original viceroy of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq—who was guarded by a Blackwater security detail during his time in office—authored a revealing 2001 paper that served as a conceptual blueprint for Blackwater’s ugly reign. Titled “New Risks In International Business,” the policy document advanced a rather radical analysis: it argued that that opening new global markets leads to dramatic spikes in income inequality, which in turn cause the social unrest that leads to terrorism. But, after naming capitalism as a central driving factor behind the terror threat, Bremer goes on to cheerlead the risk-management opportunities that the situation presents. His argument is an exercise in myopic and opportunistic nihilism, but it’s also coldly rational: since global privatization is causing global unrest, it also represents a great opportunity to privatize our response to said unrest. The bottom line, in other words, is that companies like Blackwater have a vested interest in preserving a manageable level of global despair.

The Baffler
Murder by Other MeansScott Beauchamp

The Big Picture — Why Occupy Movement Was Treated As Terrorism

Barry Ritholz crossposts Washington's Blog documenting the government targeting Occupy protests as terrorism. The government's report on the Black Friday boycott reads like The Onion but it's not satire. These security people are dangerously crazy, and the Constitution obviously means nothing to them.

The intelligence reporting and communications apparatus was in full throttle over potential Occupy Black Friday boycotts. One sample document issued from the Baltimore police shows a distribution list ranging from the Maryland Fusion Center, the FBI, the DHS, the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network, the Secret Service, the NYPD and other city and state law enforcement, the manager of corporate security for an energy company, university personnel, and the Federal Reserve.

The “counter-terrorism” documents contain multiple references to Black Friday boycotts as well as potential negative impacts on retails sales.

 Corporate statism.

The Big Picture
Why Occupy Movement Was Treated As Terrorism
Washingtons Blog

Glenn Greenwald — Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy

Pew finds that, for the first time since 9/11, Americans are now more worried about civil liberties abuses than terrorism

Tide turning?

The Guardian (UK)

Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy

Glenn Greenwald